Improved covering for floors



UNITED STATES CLEMENT KEEN, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO i v KEEN & oo.

IMPROVED COVERING FOR FLOORS Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 58,171, dated September 18, 1866; antedated September 2, 1866.

To. all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CLEMENT KEEN, of Phil adelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Covering for Floors; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My improved covering for floors consists of 'open spaces or interstices between the weft and the warp. Other coarse and cheap fabrics may be used in carrying out my invention such, for instance as sacking and coarse muslin and like fabrics which have no open spaces between the weft and warp, but in which the depressions and projections are prominent; although I prefer the'burlap and kindred fabrics, for reasons which will be rendered apparent hereinafter.

The fabric having been selected, I take sheets of tough manila paper, or other paper.

having ahard and durable surface, and dampen the same, so as to reduce it to a semi-pulpy state, and, after coating it with paste or other cement, place it, pasted side down, on the fabric, to one or both sides of which the paper is applied. I then pass the papered fabric between pressure-rolls, or subject it to other pressure, which causes the paper to penetrate the interstices of the fabric. If the latter be burlap, the pasted surfaces of the paper on opposite sides will meet each other, and be connected together wherever the interstices ocour; and if the fabric be of the character above alluded to-that is, a fabric with no open spaces, but with prominent depressions and projections-the pasted paper will penetrate the former, and will become, as it were, incorporated with the fabric.

product will be a durable combination of paper and textile fabric, the paper serving to retain the strands of the fabric in an immovable position, the strands retaining such a hold of the paper that the latter cannot be separated therefrom.

In either case the l The surface of the floor-covering thus pro duced may be ornamented by stenciling or printing, or painting in oil or water colors; and the ornamented surface may be varnished, or the paper may be printed or otherwise ornamented' before applying it to the textile fabric.

' While the floor-covering thus manufactured is as durable as ordinary oil-cloth, it ismuch cheaper than the latter. This is owing not only to the small cost of the materials used, but also to the fact that the floor-covering can be completed, ready for use, in as many hours as it takes months to make and dry ordinary oilcloths fit for the market.

. The floor-covering may be made during the process of manufacturing what is termed couched paper-that is, paper made in two sheets, united, while in a semi-pulpy state, by

passing them between pressure'rollers, a partial felting of the two sheets taking place dur ing this pressure. A roll of burlap or other fabric may be so arranged on the paper-machine that the fabric can pass between the two semi-pulpy and continuous sheets of paper, which, by the action of the pressure-rollers, are united to the fabric, little or no paste being required to effect the desired union.

Still another plan may be adopted for carryin g out my invention. The burlap or other fabric may be passed through a trough containing water and pulp, the burlap taking up sufficient of the pulp to afiord a coating, which is pressed into the interstices of the fabric by suitable rolls.

If paper be applied to one side only of the fabricthe back may be coated with a cheap pigment or with boiled linseed-oil, to render it water-proof and available for awnings, &c.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent- As anew manufacture, a floor-covering consisting of burlap, or other equivalent textile fabric, and paper or paper-pulp, combined substantiallyas set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subsoribin g witnesses.

CLEMENT K EN.

Witnesses:

H. HoWsoN, JOHN WHITE. 

